American  ^llissianarj;)  <^ssariation, 

Fourth  Ave.  and  Twenty-second  St.,  New  York. 


THE  EDUCATIONAL  MISSIONARY  IN  THE 
INDIAN  COUNTRY. 

Cheyenne  River  Reservation,  South  Dakota. 


DEACON  HLACKCOAT's  RESIDENCE. 


The  teacher  was  preparing  his  stereopti- 
con  apparatus  when  Deacon  Oglesapa 
(black-coat)  entered  to  announce  that  one 
of  the  faithful  young  men  of  Virgin  Creek 
Church  was  at  the  door  with  his  wagon  to 
take  the  teacher  and  his  apparatus  half  a 
mile  up  the  hill  to  the  Virgin  Creek  Chapel. 


The  teacher  entrusted  an  arm-load  of  his 
fragile  machinery  to  the  deacon  and  fol- 
lowed with  the  rest.  Very  strangely  the 
deacon  did  not  go  out  the  gate  but  crawled 
over  the  fence,  approached  the  wagon  from 
the  rear  and  very  cautiously  deposited  his 
burdens.  The  teacher  remarked  that  if 
those  range  horses  were  so  scarey  he  would 


VIRGIN  CREEK  CHURCH. 


rather  walk  and  carry  his  belongings.  But 
the  deacon  would  listen  to  nothing  of  that 
kind.  The  horses  were  all  right  when  they 
got  started ! 


The  deacon  anchored  their  heads  while 
the  Indian  Jehu  quietly  gathered  himself 
into  his  seat.  Then  the  deacon  was  out  of 
the  way  at  a flash.  Both  horses  stood  on 
their  tails  and  ears  alternately.  They 
made  a terrific  leap  into  the  air,  one  before 
the  other,  one  throwing  the  other  down  — 
k’whack  onto  the  wagon  tongue.  The 
other  slipped  on  the  icy  ground  and  dived 
under  the  tongue.  If  horses  ever  see  stars 
those  must  have.  And  the  teacher  foresaw 
his  forty-dollar  bundle  of  lantern  slides 
sma.shed,  and  imagined  his  stereopticon 
gas  apparatus  and  what-not  strewn  over 
the  hills,  prairie  dog  villages  and  cactus 
flats.  But  the  Indian  bronchos  happened 
to  gain  their  feet  simultaneously.  With 
one  long  swoop  we  shot  into  space.  The 
tail  of  the  wagon  snapped  around  the  head 
of  a ravine  and  the  chapel  soon  loomed  up 
in  the  moonlight  over  the  fiat. 

The  teacher  fell  out  with  the  fragiblesin 
his  arms  and  snatched  the  remainder  as  the 
wagon  passed  on.  When  last  seen  the 
bronchos  were  being  headed  into  the  prairie 
dog  town  just  beyond.  The  lantern  lecture 
was  a success. 

We  were  invited  to  Sunday  dinner  at  the 
parsonage.  The  Indian  missionary  who 
goes  on  the  principle  of  having  the  people 


VIRGIN  CREEK  PARSONAGE. 


provide  for  themselves  -will  find  the  fruit- 
of-the  vine  very  changeable.  On  a recent 
tour  of  the  Cheyenne  River  Reservation 
mission  stations  the  Lord’s  Supper  was 
observed  as  follows:  at  Cherry  Creek, 

canned  blackberry  juice;  at  Elizabeth 
Station,  on  Cheyenne  River,  diluted  buffalo- 
berry  jelly;  at  Virgin  Creek,  juice  of  stewed 
dried  choke  cherries ; at  Whitehorse  Vil- 
lage, on  Moreau  River,  cranberry  juice;  at 
Remington  Station,  Greengrass  Creek  on 
Moreau,  juice  of  stewed  dried  raspberries. 

F.  B.  R. 


